Let's have a good clean fight

That's what they used to say in boxing, isn't it?

Seconds out, round one... a clean fight with nothing below the belt.

Fat chance! I hear you jeer.

But in Reading East they have a piece of paper, a pledge which you can see here being signed by the two Robs - Conservative Rob Wilson and the Green Party candidate, Rob White.

At the moment there's no word on whether other candidates will sign. They seem to have launched a pre-emptive strike (Is that questionable in itself?).

Here's what they're promising:

(1) To show by our actions that politics need not be a dirty game, but can be a clean and positive activity, engaged in genuinely for the good of all.

(2) To tell the truth about what we have achieved and stand for, and about what others have achieved and stand for.

(3) To refrain from making personal attacks against, or misleading statements about, other candidates in written literature or verbally.

(4) Not to mislead the public about who is doing well and about who is likely to win in these elections.

(5) To make only honest and reasonable promises.

(6) To fight a clean, positive and honest campaign around the issues that concern the people of Reading West.

(7) In particular, to be honest about public spending, and not to scaremonger in ways that may frighten the most vulnerable members of our society, such as children and elderly people.

(8) To take money only from organisations and individuals whose motives in giving us money we do not have reason to suspect.

So what do we think? Any chance the other candidates will sign?

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